Minister rejects Barbados PM’s concerns about ‘recolonisation’ through AI

Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence, Do­minic Smith, is re­ject­ing any as­ser­tion that Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence could lead to a new form of coloni­sa­tion in the Caribbean re­gion.

The min­is­ter re­spond­ed to re­cent warn­ings from Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley re­gard­ing the po­ten­tial mis­use of AI in the Caribbean.

In a What­sApp ex­change with Guardian Me­dia, Smith ac­knowl­edged the con­cerns raised by Mot­t­ley, not­ing that anx­i­ety over AI is com­mon, par­tic­u­lar­ly among Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing States (SIDS). How­ev­er, he stressed that tech­nol­o­gy, in­clud­ing AI, has al­ways played a piv­otal role in shap­ing so­ci­eties.